OLPH Talent Shines in a Night with the Stars

It was for a good cause.

Indeed, the annual fundraiser at Our Lady of Perpetual Help () Catholic School’s gym drew a capacity crowd last Friday night because it benefits a  scholarship set up to honor a former student who passed away several years ago.

According to school principal Carmela Lubrano, Maria Pipergias suffered from severe asthma, and died after an attack at an eighth-grade graduation party at a friend's house.

After she passed, Maria’s mother received a kidney from her daughter, who turned out to be a perfect match, and eight other people also received organs.

Now, Maria‘s mother comes every year to graduation to make her $1,000 contribution to the fund, in her daughter's name, which goes to one graduating boy and girl who will attend St. John the Baptist High School, where Maria had planned to attend.

“The idea of the talent show was conceived by the members of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS), and this is the 13th year we are organizing it,” noted Carol Ferris, the show's faculty organizer.

“The talent show is always fun,” Lubrano said during the event. “And the show is all them. These kids choose the music themselves.”

In fact, the K-8 students organize most of it, establishing themes and deciding on decorations, trophies for all and certificates. They serve as stage crew and music directors and take on any other jobs that are needed.

This year’s program – dubbed A Night with the Stars – drew hundreds of family and friends of the school’s students, for an evening of entertainment that ranged from song and dance to choreographed mayhem of the finest sort.

There was even a jump rope act, executed to the accompaniment of a keyboard and snare drum.

The evening began with kindergarteners dancing to They Got the Beat, and first-graders dancing to Freak Out. The evening progressed through hip hop, pop, country and western, and 1960s rock, as student after student from OLPH showed off their skills. After an intermission – during which last-minute raffle tickets sales took place – the eighth-graders put on a gala conclusion, complete with hand-ripped, tie-dye shirts.

Over the 13 years it’s been produced, the talent show has netted more than $9,000 to benefit the fund.

“The proceeds – 50-50 raffle, sales and donations – supplement the donation Maria’s mother gives each year,” Ferris noted.

And it was expected that the monies raised by this year’s talent show – including the $330 raised in a 50-50 raffle alone that night – should substantially add to that tally, according to the school.

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